Jeremiah 51

1 This is what Yahweh says: “I will inspire/motivate [an army] to destroy Babylon [like a powerful] wind [MET], and [also] to destroy the people of Babylonia.

Thus he says Yahweh here I [am] about to rouse on Babylon and against [the] inhabitants Leb-qamai a wind a destroyer.

2 I will send a foreign army to come to get rid of Babylonia [like a strong wind] that blows away chaff. They will attack from every direction on that day of disaster.

And I will send to Babylon - strangers and they will winnow it and they may lay waste land its for they will be on it from round about on [the] day of calamity.

3 [I will tell them, ] ‘Do not allow the archers [of Babylon] to [have time to] put on their armor or draw their bows. Do not spare the young men of Babylon. Completely destroy their army.’

May not he bend (*Q(K)*) the [one] bending bow his and may not he lift in armor his and may not you spare young men its totally destroy all army its.

4 Their soldiers will fall dead in Babylonia; [they will die after being] wounded in the streets.

And they will fall slain in [the] land of [the] Chaldeans and pierced through in streets its.

5 [I, ] the Commander of the armies of angels, the Israelis’ God, have not abandoned Israel and Judah. [Even though] their land was full of people who sinned against [me], the Holy God of Israel, I am still their God.

For not [is] forsaken Israel and Judah from God its from Yahweh of hosts for land their it is full guilt from [the] holy [one] of Israel.

6 [You people of Israel and Judah, ] flee from Babylon! Run away from there! Do not stay there and be killed when I punish [the people of Babylon]! It will be the time when I will get revenge; I will do to them what they deserve.

Flee - from [the] midst of Babylon and save everyone life his may not you be destroyed in iniquity its for [is] a time of vengeance it for Yahweh recompense he [is] about to repay to it.

7 Babylon has been [like] [MET] a gold cup in my hand, [a cup that is full of wine] that caused people all over the earth [who drank some of it to become] drunk. [It is as though] the [rulers of] the nations drank the wine from Babylon, and it caused them to become crazy.

[was] a cup of Gold Babylon in [the] hand of Yahweh making drunk all the earth some of wine its they have drunk nations there-fore they are acting like mad people nations.

8 But suddenly Babylon will be conquered. [You foreigners who live in Babylon, ] weep for its people. Give them medicine for their wounds; perhaps they can be healed.”

Suddenly it will fall Babylon and it was broken wail on it get balm for pain its perhaps it will be healed.

9 We [foreigners] would have [tried to] heal them, but [now] they cannot be healed. [So we will not try to help them; ] we will abandon them, and return to our own lands, because [it is as though] the punishment they are receiving is so great that it reaches up to the clouds in sky, [so great that no one can measure it].

(We healed *Q(k)*) Babylon and not it was healed leave it so we may go everyone to own land his for it has reached to the heavens judgment its and it has been lifted up to [the] clouds.

10 Yahweh has (vindicated us/shown that we were right); [so] let’s proclaim in Jerusalem everything that Yahweh our God has done [for us].

He has brought forth Yahweh righteousness our come so let us recount in Zion [the] work of Yahweh God our.

11 [You enemy soldiers, ] sharpen your arrows! Lift up your shields, [because] Yahweh has incited your kings of Media [and Persia to march with their armies] to Babylon and to destroy it. That is how Yahweh will get revenge on [those foreigners who entered] his temple [in Jerusalem] and defiled it.

Sharpen the arrows fill the shields he has roused Yahweh [the] spirit of [the] kings of Media for on Babylon purpose his [is] to destroy it for [is] [the] vengeance of Yahweh it [the] vengeance of temple his.

12 Lift up a battle flag close to the walls of Babylon! (Reinforce the/Appoint more) guards, and tell the watchmen to stand [in their positions]! Prepare an ambush, because Yahweh is about to accomplish all that he has planned to do to the people of Babylon.

Against [the] walls of Babylon lift up a standard strengthen the watch station watchmen prepare the ambushers for both he has purposed Yahweh as well as he will do [that] which he spoke concerning [the] inhabitants of Babylon.

13 Babylon is [a city] near the great [Euphrates] River, a city in which there are many rich people, but it is time for Babylon to be finished; the time [for the city] to exist is ended.

(O [one who] dwells *Q(k)*) at waters many greatness of treasures it has come end your [the] cubit of cutting off your.

14 The Commander of the armies of angels has solemnly promised, using his own name, “Your cities will be filled with your enemies; I will cause them to be like [SIM] a swarm of locusts; and they will shout triumphantly [when they conquer your city].”

He swears Yahweh of hosts by self his that except I will fill you person[s] like locust and they will sing to you a shout.

15 Yahweh created the earth by his power; he established it by his wisdom, and he stretched out the sky by his understanding.

[he] made [the] earth By power his [he] established [the] world by wisdom his and by understanding his he stretched out [the] heavens.

16 When he speaks loudly, there is thunder in the sky; he causes clouds to form in every part of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and releases the winds from his storehouses.

To [the] sound of giving forth he a tumult of waters in the heavens and he brought up clouds from [the] end of [the] earth lightning for the rain he makes and he brought out [the] wind from storehouses his.

17 People are senseless, and they know very little [HYP]; those who make idols are [always] disappointed, because their idols [do nothing for them]. The images/statues that they make are not real [gods]; they are lifeless.

He is stupid every person from knowledge he is put to shame every metalsmith from [the] idol for [is] deception molten image his and not breath [is] in them.

18 Idols are worthless; they deserve to be ridiculed; there will be a time when they will [all] be destroyed.

[are] futility They a work of mockery at [the] time of punishment their they will perish.

19 But the God whom [we] Israelis [worship] is not like those [idols]; he is the one who created everything [that exists]; [we], the people of Israel, belong to him; his name is ‘the Commander of the armies of angels’.

Not [is] like these [the] portion of Jacob for [is [the] one who] formed everything he and [the] tribe of inheritance his [is] Yahweh of hosts name his.

20 Yahweh says [about the army of Babylonia] (OR, [about a nation that will attack Babylonia)], “You have been [like] [MET] my battle-axe and war-club; with your [power] I have shattered nations and destroyed [many] kingdoms.

[are] a war-club You of me weapons of war and I smash by you nations and I destroy by you kingdoms.

21 With your [power] I have shattered armies [of other nations]: I destroyed [their] horses and their riders, [their] chariots and [their] chariot-drivers.

And I smash by you horse and rider its and I smash by you chariotry and rider[s] its.

22 With your [power] I shattered men and women, old people and children, young men and young women.

And I smash by you man and woman and I smash by you old [man] and young man and I smash by you young man and young woman.

23 With your [power] I shattered shepherds and their flocks [of sheep], farmers and their oxen, governors and [their] officials.”

And I smash by you shepherd and flock his and I smash by you a farmer and team his and I smash by you governors and officials.

24 But, Yahweh [also] says, “[Soon] I will repay/punish [you] people in Babylon and in the rest of Babylonia for all the evil things that you have done in Jerusalem.

And I will repay to Babylon and to all - [the] inhabitants of Chaldea all evil their which they did in Zion to eyes your [the] utterance of Yahweh.

25 [Babylonia is] [APO] like [MET] a great mountain [from which bandits descend] to (plunder/steal things from) people all over the earth. But I, Yahweh, am the enemy of you [people of Babylonia]. I will raise my fist to strike you. I will knock you down from the cliffs and cause you to be [only] a huge pile of burned rubble.

Here I [am] against you O mountain of destruction [the] utterance of Yahweh who destroys all the earth and I will stretch out hand my on you and I will roll you from the crags and I will make you into a mountain of burning.

26 Your [city] will be abandoned forever; [even] the stones in your [city] will never [again] be used for buildings. [Your city will be completely destroyed].”

And not people will take from you stone for a corner and stone for foundations for wastes of perpetuity you will be [the] utterance of Yahweh.

27 [Tell] the nations to lift up a battle flag! [Tell them to] shout the battle-cry! Gather all their armies to fight against Babylon! Prepare the nations to attack Babylon. Summon [the armies of] the kingdoms [north of Babylonia]—from Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander for them, and bring [a great number of] horses; [there must be a huge number of horses]; that [huge number] will resemble [SIM] a swarm of locusts.

Lift up a standard in the land blow a trumpet among the nations consecrate on it nations summon on it [the] kingdoms of Ararat Minni and Ashkenaz appoint on it an official bring up horse[s] like a locust bristly.

28 Prepare the [armies of other nations], armies that will be led by the kings of Media [and Persia], their governors and [their] officials.

Consecrate on it nations [the] kings of Media governors its and all officials its and all [the] land of dominion his.

29 [When they attack Babylon, it will be as though] the earth will shake and writhe [in pain], because [those armies] will accomplish everything that Yahweh has planned to do to Babylon; they will destroy it completely, [with the result that] no one will live there [again].

And it quaked the land and it writhed for it will be fulfilled on Babylon [the] plans of Yahweh to make [the] land of Babylon into a waste from not inhabitant.

30 [When their enemies attack], the strongest warriors in Babylon will not fight. They will remain in their barracks, without any strength. They will be as timid/weak as [SIM] women. [The enemy soldiers] will burn the buildings in the city and pull down the bars [of the city gates].

They will cease [the] warriors of Babylon to fight they will remain in the strongholds it will be dry strength their they will become women they will be set on fire dwellings its they will be broken bars its.

31 Messengers will go quickly, one after another, to tell the king that his city has been captured.

A runner to meet a runner he will run and a messenger to meet a messenger to tell to [the] king of Babylon that it has been captured city his from [the] end.

32 The places at which people can cross the river [to escape from the city] will be blocked. The dry reeds in the marshes/swamps will be set on fire, and the soldiers of Babylon will be terrified.

And the fords they have been seized and the reed-marshes they have burned with fire and [the] men of war they are terrified.

33 This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], says; “Babylon is like [SIM] wheat on the ground where it is about to be threshed by [animals] tramping on it. Very soon [their enemies] will trample on [the city of] Babylon [MET].”

For thus he says Yahweh of hosts [the] God of Israel [the] daughter of Babylon [will be] like a threshing floor a time [when] someone treads down it yet a little and it will come [the] time of the harvest to it.

34 [The army of] Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, has attacked and crushed us [Israeli people], and we have no strength [left]. [It is as though] they have swallowed us like a [great] monster that filled its belly with all our tasty parts, and then has spit out [what it did not like].

(He devoured me he confused me *Q(K)*) Nebuchadnezzar [the] king of Babylon (he set down me *Q(K)*) a vessel of emptiness (he swallowed me *Q(K)*) like sea monster he filled belly his from delicacies my (he rinsed out me. *Q(K)*)

35 [So] the people of [PRS] Jerusalem say [to Yahweh], “Cause the people of Babylon to suffer like they caused us to suffer! Cause the people of Babylonia to be punished for killing [MTY] our people!”

Violence my and flesh my [be] on Babylon she will say [the] inhabitant[s] of Zion and blood my [be] to [the] inhabitants of Chaldea it will say Jerusalem.

36 And this is what Yahweh replies to the people of Jerusalem: “I will [be like your lawyer to] defend you, and I will avenge you. I will dry up the river in Babylon and [all] the springs of water.

Therefore thus he says Yahweh here I [am] about to conduct case your and I will avenge vengeance your and I will dry up sea its and I will make dry spring its.

37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a place where jackals/wolves live. It will become a place that people are horrified about and will ridicule; it will be a place where no one lives.

And it will become Babylon - heaps of stones - a habitation of jackals a horror and a hissing from not inhabitant.

38 The people of Babylon will [all] roar like young lions; they will growl like baby lions.

Together like young lions they roar they growl like cubs of lions.

39 But while they are extremely hungry, I will prepare a [different kind of] feast for them. [It is as though] I will cause them to drink wine until they are very drunk, [with the result that] they will fall asleep. But they will never wake up from that sleep!

When getting heated they I will make feast their and I will make drunk them so that they may celebrate and they will sleep a sleep of perpetuity and not they will awake [the] utterance of Yahweh.

40 I will bring them down to a place where they will be slaughtered, like [SIM] [someone who takes] lambs or rams or goats [to where they will be slaughtered for sacrifices].

I will bring down them like lambs to slaughter like rams with goats.

41 People all over the earth [now] (honor/praise) Babylon; they say that it is a great city. But I will cause it to become a [place about which people of all] nations are horrified.

How! it will be captured Sheshach and it has been seized [the] praise of all the earth how! it will become a horror Babylon among the nations.

42 The [enemies of Babylon] will cover the city [like] huge waves of the sea [DOU].

It will go up over Babylon the sea with [the] tumult of waves its it will be covered.

43 The towns in Babylonia will become ruins, Babylonia will become a dry desert area. It will be a land in which no one lives and which no one walks through.

They will become cities its a waste a land dry and a desert plain a land [where] not he will dwell in them any person and not he will pass in them a child of humankind.

44 And I will punish Bel, [the god that the people] of Babylon [worship], and I will cause the people to give back what they have stolen [MET]. [People of other] nations will no longer come to [worship] Bel. And the walls of Babylon will collapse.”

And I will visit [judgment] on Bel in Babylon and I will bring out swallowed thing his from mouth his and not they will stream to him again nations also [the] wall of Babylon it will fall.

45 [Yahweh also says, ] “My people, come out of Babylon! Run away from there! Run, because [I], Yahweh, am extremely angry [MTY] [with the people of Babylon, and I will get rid of them]!

Come out from [the] midst of it O people my and save everyone life his from [the] burning of [the] anger of Yahweh.

46 Do not be discouraged/worried [IDM] or afraid when you hear reports [about what is happening in Babylon]. People will report rumors like that every year, rumors about violent things being done in the land, and rumors about leaders fighting against each other.

And lest it should be weak heart your so you may fear at the report which is being heard in the land and it will come in the year the report and after it in the year the report and violence [will be] in the land and ruler [will be] on ruler.

47 But it will soon be the time for me to get rid of the idols in Babylon. [People all over] the land will be ashamed [because of being defeated]; and the corpses of their [soldiers] will lie in the streets.

Therefore here! days [are] coming and I will visit [judgment] on [the] images of Babylon and all land its it will be ashamed and all slain [ones] its they will fall in [the] midst of it.

48 Then all [the angels in] heaven and all the [people on] [PRS] the earth will rejoice, because from the north will come [armies] that will destroy Babylon.

And they will cry out for joy on Babylon heaven and earth and all that [is] in them for from [the] north he will come to it the destroyers [the] utterance of Yahweh.

49 Like [the soldiers of Babylon] killed the people of Israel and [also] killed others all over the world [HYP], [the people of] Babylon must also be killed.

Both Babylon [is] to fall [those] slain of Israel as well as for Babylon they have fallen [those] slain of all the earth.

50 You [Israeli people] who have not been killed [MTY], get out of Babylon! Do not wait! [Even though you are in a land] far away [from Israel], think about Yahweh, and think about Jerusalem!”

O escapees from [the] sword go may not you stand still remember from a distant [land] Yahweh and Jerusalem let it come up on heart your.

51 [The Israeli people say], “We are ashamed. We are completely disgraced [DOU], because foreigners have entered Yahweh’s temple [and (defiled it/caused it to become unfit for worship)].”

We are ashamed for we have heard scorn it has covered ignominy faces our for they have gone strangers to [the] holy places of [the] house of Yahweh.

52 Yahweh replies, “[That is true], but there will soon be a time when I will destroy the idols in Babylon, and throughout Babylonia there will be wounded people who will groan.

Therefore here! days [are] coming [the] utterance of Yahweh and I will visit [judgment] on images its and in all land its he will groan [the] fatally wounded.

53 Even if [the walls around] Babylon could extend up to the sky, and if its walls/fortifications were extremely strong, I will send [armies] that will destroy the city. [That will surely happen because I, ] Yahweh, have said it.”

If it will go up Babylon the heavens and if it will fortify [the] height of strength its from with me they will come destroyers to it [the] utterance of Yahweh.

54 Listen to [the people of] Babylon crying [for help]! And listen to the sounds of things being destroyed all over Babylonia!

[the] sound of A cry of distress from Babylon and destruction great from [the] land of [the] Chaldeans.

55 Yahweh will be destroying Babylon. He will cause the loud noises in the city to cease.

For [is] about to destroy Yahweh Babylon and he will destroy from it a sound great and they will roar waves their like waters many it will be given [the] uproar of voice their.

56 Enemy troops will surge against the city like [SIM] a great wave. They will capture the city’s mighty soldiers and break their weapons. [That will happen] because Yahweh is a God who punishes [his enemies] justly; he will punish them as they deserve.

For [is] about to come on it on Babylon a destroyer and they will be captured warriors its it will be shattered bows their for [is] a God of recompense Yahweh fully he will repay.

57 The king, the Commander of the armies of angels says, “I will cause the city officials and wise men, the army captains and soldiers [in Babylon] to become drunk. They will fall asleep, but they will never wake up [again]!”

And I will make drunk officials its and wise [people] its governors its and officials its and warriors its and they will sleep a sleep of perpetuity and not they will awake [the] utterance of the king [is] Yahweh of hosts name his.

58 Yahweh also says, “The thick walls around Babylon will be flattened to the ground. The city gates will be burned. People [from other countries] will work hard [to save the city], but it will be (in vain/useless), because everything [that they have built] will be destroyed by fire.”

Thus he says Yahweh of hosts [the] walls of Babylon broad utterly it will be demolished and gates its high with fire they will be kindled and they may labor peoples for [the] sufficiency of emptiness and peoples for [the] sufficiency of fire and they grow weary.

59 Seraiah was the man who made arrangements for the King of Babylon [whenever he traveled]. He was the son of Neraiah and grandson of Mahseiah. When he was about to go to Babylon with King Zedekiah, after Zedekiah had been ruling Judah for almost four years, the prophet Jeremiah gave him a message.

The word which he commanded - Jeremiah the prophet Seraiah [the] son of Neriah [the] son of Mahseiah when went he with Zedekiah [the] king of Judah Babylon in [the] year fourth of reigning his and Seraiah [was] an official of a resting place.

60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll a list of all the disasters that he had written about, disasters that would soon occur in Babylon.

And he wrote Jeremiah all the calamity which it will come to Babylon to a scroll one all the words these which were written concerning Babylon.

61 He said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, read [aloud] everything that I have written [on this scroll].

And he said Jeremiah to Seraiah when coming you Babylon and you will see and you will read aloud all the words these.

62 Then pray, ‘Yahweh, you said that you will thoroughly destroy Babylon, with the result that people and animals will no [longer] live there. You said that it will be desolate forever.’

And you will say O Yahweh you you have spoken concerning the place this to cut off it to not to be in it an inhabitant from humankind and unto animal for desolations of perpetuity it will be.

63 [Then], when you have finished reading [what I have written on] the scroll, tie it to a [heavy] stone and throw it into the Euphrates [River].

And it will be when finishing you to read aloud the scroll this you will tie on it a stone and you will throw it into [the] middle of [the] Euphrates.

64 Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon [and its people] will disappear and never exist again, because of the disasters that Yahweh will cause to occur there’” That is the end of Jeremiah’s messages.

And you will say thus it will sink Babylon and not it will rise because of the calamity which I [am] about to bring on it and they will grow weary [are] to here [the] words of Jeremiah.